It was Nov 29, a Thursday. My flight to Gensan was at 12:25 lunchtime. Jette said to be at the airport at 11 at the earliest. But I still had some work to do. I took the MRT (which was a great decision considering it was raining and traffic was super slow that day) to go to Ortigas and pick up the blueprint which I had left with my client to check the day before and then got on a cab to drop it off at the printer’s in Mandaluyong. Then, being wiser this time, I took the MRT again to the last stop at Taft. From there, people were lining up for taxis to the airport. It was drizzling and the clouds were grey. In the taxi later, I realized that I had left my camera! And I call myself a photographer! It was on the sofa where I had also left my rainjacket. I had rushed out of the apartment that morning and grabbed the rainjacket but forgot the camera. If I went back, I wouldn’t be able to make it to the airport in time. I let it go. I prayed that Heia would bring her Canon and we would at least have some decent shots of Matutum and Parker–our goals in our Gensan trip.
The night before, I was still 75 % uncertain of going. I had a pending job ( this is a recurring situation common to freelance folks like me) and a deadline for a print job. But the next day, everything went well.I assumed the forces out there wanted me to see Matutum and Parker and be able to breathe unpolluted air.
As soon as the Cebu-Pac plane took off, I went to sleep. We all sat apart from each other and as long-time travelling companions, we did not really need to talk. There was time later. We arrived in Gensan and saw that it was gloomy too . As soon as we gathered our checked-in bags ( plus my tote–it amused C,H,J,R endlessly), we went straight out to the airport parking lot to check if the “weapon” was already there. I assumed they meant a Weapon’s Carrier ( as a daughter of a former mechanic, I knew that I had heard Papa mention that kind of vehicle before). It was nowhere in sight. Then we went through the long winded discussion of whether we should just walk to the junction and meet our climb host while we dragged our bags with us or maybe we could hire any of the tricycles parked nearby. We were persuaded by Ma’am Chincha that we could just walk to the junction. Ahh-it seemed so near. So we started walking to the exit. Then we noticed a guy in a Sandugo cap and another guy who was wearing a climb shirt. He was pointing to us and noticed Ranhel. I think his name was Jay but it later became Charlie when he kept calling us “angels”. We went off via a tricycle which turned out to be a good decision because the junction was definitely not your regular walking distance. We would probably have collapsed before we even reached the “weapon” parked at the junction. And wait, the ” weapon” was indeed parked at the junction with an entire barrio clinging to its backside!I wanted to laugh but Benny, our host in Gensan, was already telling us to board the vehicle since it was already late! Whoa! That was a funny moment. I had not paid attention to the IT that was passed on to me by H. But it just dawned on me that we were going straight to the mountain. And it was a mountain trail! It was dusty, steep , with ravines on each side. After the rocky,horrific ride,we arrived at the Bagong Silang school of the T’bolis at around 5pm. Immediately the T’boli children surrounded us as we unpacked our stove, and other cooking implements for our dinner.
It was a good night’s sleep for us. Woke up at 6am and started to pack away our sleeping stuff. We were ready to go off with just our water and our lunch. We trooped out of the school and passed by the water source–such sweet water! We were off. Who were our companions? Well, our boys were Enteng Morano (Vincent Philip), Jepoi Espanola (Eric John), Brian Paguntalan (or Bryce, according to H), Wilson Jurin, Bagul Mascardo(Cyrus),Arvin ( or Gilbert, according to H) and a very quiet Koko. Benny and his wife Anna, owners of the Edge outdoor shop were left behind in the Bagong Silang school.
The Trek. Going up to Parker’s summit was not as hard as we thought. It was a pleasant walk even under the hot sun.The wind fanned our cheeks as we tried to keep up with the boys. On the way, we passed through T’boli homes and fields of corn and some unplanted land. It struck me that I was back in T’boli land once again. I had been sent to Lake Sebu years ago on assignment together with Joel and Cherie to document the T’boli life and culture. It was one of my first visits to the region. Now, I was meeting the shy T’boli once again. This time, they had no beads to sell. The school had only one teacher.
We reached the summit and looked down on the famous lake they call Lake Maughan or Lake Holon (T’boli word). Mt. Parker was formerly Mt. Melibengoy. There was a vague story of a rescuer whose name was then used subsequently as the mountain’s new name. I like the old native names better. It gives the place real character. After taking endless pictures of ourselves and our companions at the viewdeck – Brian brought us to 2 sites, and then we were off again. We went down and reached the school at around 3pm.
OMish girls. The stressed out group of Omish were all present. Those who had not slept for days just rushing through some work were together once again. But the funny thing was everyone had either a missing piece of outdoor equipment or brought a wrong one. Ranhel brought a black sports jacket from the office which was mocked by everyone of course. Sa Omish pa, di ka makakalusot.Then of course she also forgot to bring her toothbrush. H and I forgot our lunchboxes. I forgot my camera,my headlamp, and my water container. I may have been the worst prepared of the lot in terms of equipment. But all went well. So far.
Then we were on another bumpy ride down to the city together with the uling sacks with us on the truck. But once in Gensan, we went to this place that served cold Red Horse and tuna belly. That was a glorious meal for all.We tried to be gracious hostesses of the dinner. But Ranhel had a bad migraine and Chincha was mostly quiet but smiling. H, J, and I enjoyed bantering with the boys and especially Jepoi who had introduced us to the term MM (murag mountaineer). Murag mountaineers are those who pretend to be climbers but who probably own a backpack and may never have climbed any mountain at all. Could also mean arrogant climbers who wouldn’t last long outdoors! That was funny:) Ilonggo, Bisaya and Tagalog were spoken freely. Some of the boys said they were having nosebleeds from speaking Tagalog. It was a fun night.
We slept at Benny’s house that night and had to wake up at 5am the next day for Matutum.And that was not easy with our aching backs and legs.This time, it was just Wilson, Jun (Benny’s guy at Edge), and Jepoi who went with us. We had also teased Jepoi since we knew his wife was pregnant and wanted him to be home early. He had ruefully declared ” Ako ang hari ng aming tahanan…pero siya ang alas!”. This triggered a howl of laughter from everyone.
At 6 am,we made our way to the Gensan market with just our water and gatorade. Before getting to the market carinderia for our breakfast, we bought cassava cakes.I bought 5 packs of 5 and it was the best cassava cakes we’ve had in a long time including the onces you would find in some fancy Manila cakeshop.Then we ate breakfast at this bayot’s place. We ate chicken adobo and had instant coffee. My packed lunch was pansit and boiled egg.
We went next to our transpo and voila! we were going on a habal-habal! Chincha and I chose to ride together. As we zoomed past the pineapple fields, we saw Matutum inviting us to try her out. It was a majestic sight. I tried to take a p&s shot of it from Chincha’s nice compact camera but I may not have taken a nice pix. Let’s see later.
Mt Matutum, South Cotabato. Thats’ the Dole plantation in the foreground as we zoom past in our rented habal. Photo taken 7:30 am
We started at Sitio Keumang in Bgy. Palkan.This is where the habal-habal dropped us off.The trek started at 8:20am. We went up and were about to get past this clump of houses when this guy ,Mang Gorio who was the ex-bgy chairman ,stopped us by saying we would need to get a guide to go all the way up and of course we would need to pay. We left most of the negotiation to Jun who knew his way around these things. But the man was adamant that we get him as our guide. We didn’t really quibble much anymore. He got his machete /guluk and came with us. We passed through guava trees,talahib, a river, and some buungun (suha) trees. Mang Gorio picked out 2 buungun for us. At some point, he was distracted by the coffee plants that we passed by and he turned around and said he would leave us there. We didn’t make a fuss. We paid him two hundred pesos and we were off again. It still puzzles me why he didn’t go all the way up with us but I didn’t really need answers that time. I guess climbing to the peak was more important at that time. Mang Gorio’s intentions faded into nothing.
Mt. Matutum. We went through a nice forested canopy. And then the climb became steeper. More roots sprung up as we went higher. Gollygeeze. It was a hard climb. It made us go through fallen tree trunks,90 degree inclines, and some portions reminded me of a mini-Halcon in Mindoro except that Halcon would be 10 times harder and longer of course. We reached the top at 3pm. And to my surprise the peak wasn’t green–the floor was full of ash-colored stones and grey sand. One also had to go a few more meters down to view the crater. This we didn’t do. Fog also came down and suddenly it was cold. And then just as suddenly, the sun was out. H and R arrived with Wilson in tow. We had pictures taken with everyone around us and then it was time to go down. Climbing down was a real hard thing too. It was easier in a way because we were no longer fighting gravity but we were pressed for time. It was going to be dark soon and we had no headlamps. I was worried that it would be a night trek and it was . When we reached that junction where Mang Gorio left us, Jun was thinking we should use the old trail because he was more familiar with it. Jette intervened and said, it might be better if we use the trail of Tony’s (the other trail guide and Jun’s brother) because it would get us out to the village much faster. By this time, it was growing dark and we were still in the forest. We plunged into the semi-darkness of the last stretch of the Matutum forest. It grew real dark and only fireflies were giving off light. I borrowed Chincha’s walking stick and tried to feel my way through the boulders, rocks, and vines that must be the trail.Then we saw the glow of Tony’s flashlight. He then showed us the trail. We asked H to go to the front since she was completely blind (so was I, come to think of it) in the dark. Using her walking stick, she would shout instructions about directions and if there was an obstruction, etc. Later, I would find out that it was also becasue she was seeing and feeling some strange presence along the forest trail. By shouting, it was her way of making things seem normal and for her to be less afraid. Then we heard the boom of a videokebar so we knew we were finally at the edges of the village. At 6:30 that evening,we got down to Sitio Glandang,Bgy. Kablon in Tupi, South Cotabato. It was a 10-hour trek up to Matutum and down.
Again, we had to ride a habal-habal that literally killed Chincha and me. More of that in private later. We rode past more pineapple fields and then finally, the highway. We waited for a bus but we ended up riding in a van. Got to Gensan after 40 minutes or so and went off to BJ’s where we had sinigang, tinola chicken (in Tuna country), vegies. That night, socials was at Benny’s house. Arvin, Enteng, Bagul, Jepoi, Jun, Wilson (who took a bath immediately and crawled on the sofa and slept like a baby) quiet Koko, Benny and Anne asked us what we thought of the climb. We all said, the climb was hard. We talked about the teamwork, trekking up and down and how we found our way in the dark. The party folded up at 3am. We dragged our tired legs to our shared room and saw Ranhel and Chincha snoozing without a care in the world. Aargh…
Tuna shopping. Next day, we scoured the market for scarves, malong, and ended up at the Gensan mall for lunch. Jun and Bagul went with us just to hang out. We also bought tuna to bring home. I brought home tuna to QC and Don sugba(ed) it for us.
Our wait at the airport was uneventful. I bought Kablon farm jam preserves. I didn’t know they are produced in Gensan. At our plane seats, H and I reveiwed the canon pix and smiled at the memory. That was some climb. We now have a new story to remember. XXXX
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